It's all hands on deck, or at least in Blackburn, to save the town's last four mill chimneys, out of more than 200 which once expressed the industrial might of the north in clouds of smoke. The old cotton-weaving town, the busiest in Lancashire in its heyday, lost most of the slender landmarks in the late 20th century, some of them at the hands of that demolition legend, Blaster Bates.

To begin with, nobody much cared. But gradually local people began to see the beauty of the crafted, curved brickwork or the delicately-cut stone on the stacks. In common with conservationists elsewhere in our three regions, who are seriously worried about renewed threats to mill buildings of all kinds, they are now ringing alarm bells with vigour.

"We are getting to the stage where we are running out of heritage," Prof David Smalley tells the Lancashire Telegraph. "A mill without a chimney is like a watermill without a wheel." There are grand stories attached to many of them too; the colossal one at Lister's velvet mill in Bradford – save in the care of Urban Splash's lofts conversion now – hosted a dinner party on its boarded-over top for the company directors before the looms started whirring far below.

Starting them young

As ever, I must balance such worrying news with the more optimistic side of things. People sometimes mumble gloomily about apprenticeships being a thing of the past. Not so. The BBC, whose Salford initiative cannot be over-praised and should be followed by all media organisations, is offering 100 apprenticeships in digital media and technology in its first four years.

The first recruits will be in place by September with 25 due to be working at Salford Quays' 'Media City' by May next year. The scheme is open to applicants from Greater Manchester and each apprentice will have 12-18 months training which will then be applied in actual jobs.

Much more modest but still welcome is the deal agreed between Rochdale council and Agilysis, a Microsoft partner which provides the authority's IT services. The deal includes a guaranteed apprenticeship for a local applicant.

Happy birthday to us (and again in July)

A Birthday cake Photograph: Alamy

In that eerie way it has, Facebook has reminded me that it was the Northerner's birthday yesterday. Actually, it was one of our birthdays. Like the Queen, we have two. The column began nine years ago in July, as a sweet little email. Thanks to my tacky-ace colleague Ros Taylor, it made its debut on Facebook on March 20 the following year. Now it is approaching its pre-teens and newly a blog, since 2 March. So we can count that and have three cakes a year. No northerner can have too many cakes.